Tag: Russian election interference

Defending the 2020 election against hacking: 5 questions answered

1. Though Woodward reports there was no evidence the election registration system malware had been activated, this sounds scary. Should people be worried?

Yes, we should be worried. Four years ago, Russia managed to penetrate systems in several states but there’s no evidence that they “pulled the trigger” to take advantage of their penetration. One possibility is that they simply saw no need, having successfully “hacked the electorate” by damaging Hillary Clinton’s candidacy through selective dumps of hacked documents on Wikileaks. 

We know that VR Systems, a contractor that worked for several Florida counties, was hacked, and we know that there were serious problems in Durham County, North Carolina, during the 2016 election, including software glitches that caused poll workers to turn away voters during parts of Election Day. Durham county was also a VR Systems customer. 

I know of no post-election investigation of the problems in Durham County that was conducted with sufficient depth to assure me that Russia was not involved. It remains possible that they did pull the trigger on that county, but it is also possible that the problems there were entirely the result of “normal incompetence.” Continue reading.

New report paints a disturbing picture of the Kremlin’s ability to wreak havoc in the 2020 election

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Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin have a preference in the United States’ 2020 presidential election, and it isn’t former Vice President Joe Biden. Efforts by Russian operatives to interfere in this year’s election — just as they interfered in 2016’s presidential election — and help President Donald Trump win a second term have been well documented. Journalist Franklin Foer, this week in an article for The Atlantic, warns that the Kremlin will be relentless this time.

“Events in the United States have unfolded more favorably than any operative in Moscow could have ever dreamed,” Foer explains. “Not only did Russia’s preferred candidate win (in 2016), but he has spent his first term fulfilling the potential it saw in him — discrediting American institutions, rending the seams of American culture, and isolating a nation that had styled itself as indispensable to the free world. But instead of complacently enjoying its triumph, Russia almost immediately set about replicating it. Boosting the Trump campaign was a tactic; #DemocracyRIP remains the larger objective.”

The United States’ election vulnerabilities, Foer warns, have “widened, not narrowed, during the past four years.” And Trump, according to Foer, “has dismissed Russian interference as a hoax and fired or threatened intelligence officials who have contradicted that narrative, all while professing his affinity for the very man who ordered this assault on American democracy.” Continue reading.

The Trump team welcomed Russian disinformation, the Trump administration further confirms

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President Trump, in August, promoted information that the U.S. government has increasingly connected to a Russian disinformation campaign in the 2020 election — after his personal attorney, Rudolph W. Giuliani, worked with the man promoting it. Now the U.S. government says explicitly that the man behind it is a Russian agent.

The Treasury Department on Thursday identified Ukrainian politician Andrii Derkach as an “active Russian agent for over a decade” — a label that could lead to more direct penalties. It added that Derkach has “directly or indirectly engaged in, sponsored, concealed or otherwise been complicit in foreign interference in an attempt to undermine the upcoming 2020 U.S. presidential election.”

“This action is a clear signal to Moscow and its proxies that this activity will not be tolerated,” the Treasury Department said. Continue reading.

Microsoft warns Russia, China and Iran targeting US election

TheHill.com

Microsoft on Thursday reported that it is seeing “increasing” cyberattacks originating in Russia, China and Iran targeting its customers, including attacks against political groups and the presidential campaigns of President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden.

Tom Burt, corporate vice president of customer security and trust at Microsoft, detailed in a blog post the efforts by three major foreign hacking groups to target the campaigns, along with other political organizations and individuals.

“The activity we are announcing today makes clear that foreign activity groups have stepped up their efforts targeting the 2020 election as had been anticipated, and is consistent with what the U.S. government and others have reported,” Burt wrote.  Continue reading.

Exclusive: Russian state hackers suspected in targeting Biden campaign firm – sources

WASHINGTON – Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) recently alerted one of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s main election campaign advisory firms that it had been targeted by suspected Russian state-backed hackers, according to three people briefed on the matter.

The hacking attempts targeted staff at Washington-based SKDKnickerbocker, a campaign strategy and communications firm working with Biden and other prominent Democrats, over the past two months, the sources said. 

A person familiar with SKDK’s response to the attempts said the hackers failed to gain access to the firm’s networks. “They are well-defended, so there has been no breach,” the person said. Continue reading.

Trump’s ‘Sleepy Joe’ Slur Is Direct From The Kremlin — And It’s Fake News

In the real world, that is to say the non-televised part of our lives remote from social media, we would shun somebody who went around spreading ugly rumors about neighbors, relatives or co-workers. Not that it never happens. I have a woman friend who resigned from a local charity after a clique of rivals spread a false tale that she’d slipped into dementia, poor thing.

She decided that she wanted nothing more to do with them.

Alas, from the gossips’ point of view, the smear campaign worked. Not that my friend isn’t better off without them. More than anything, the pretense of compassion made her furious. In time, they’ll probably turn against each another, because that’s what such people do.  Continue reading.

Peter Strzok would like to clear a few things up

Peter Strzok would like to clear a few things up

“I’m sorry to bother you. But it turns out Trump just accused me of treason.”

Peter Strzok, who was still an FBI employee that day in January 2018 and couldn’t respond to the president’s attack, was appealing to his boss: “The bureau can’t let this stand,” he pleaded.

“I’m sorry, Pete,” came the response. “We’re not going to say anything.”

Nearly three years later, Strzok — who led the FBI’s Russia investigation, dubbed Crossfire Hurricane, until he was removed over several anti-Trump texts he’d sent during the election amid an affair with a colleague — is finally able to speak publicly and on his terms for the first time since he joined the FBI more than two decades ago. Continue reading.

DHS withheld publication of intel bulletin showing Russian plot to attack Biden’s mental health: report

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According to ABC News, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security withheld publication, in early July, of an intelligence bulletin describing a Russian scheme to push “allegations about” Biden’s “poor mental health.”

ABC News has obtained a copy of the bulletin, titled “Russia Likely to Denigrate Health of U.S. Candidates to Influence 2020 Election.” And ABC reporters Josh Margolin, Lucien Bruggeman, Will Steakin and Jonathan Karl note that the document was submitted to the DHS’ office of legislative and public affairs for review on July 7.

“The analysis was not meant for public consumption,” according to the reporters. “But it was set to be distributed to federal, state and local law enforcement partners two days later, on July 9, the e-mails show.” Continue reading.

Kremlin-linked businessman boasted he knew about president’s ‘relationships with women’ in Moscow and hotel bosses talked about elevator tape of Trump with two ‘hostesses’ Senate Intel report reveals – but says Putin’s spies did NOT have kompromat

The bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee’s final Russia report lays out new claims about Donald Trump‘s ‘relationships with women in Moscow’ – including new allegations about a ‘tape’ of the future president in a luxury hotel elevator.

The explosive 1,000 page report caps off a multi-year investigation where investigators concluded that Russia sought to influence the 2016 campaign and that some officials in Trump’s orbit welcomed the assistance. 

The fifth volume in the probe, which began after Trump’s 2016 victory, points to the role played by Trump’s disgraced former campaign chair Paul Manafort, who is currently serving a 7 1/2 year sentence on fraud and corruption charges. It accuses Manafort of collaborating with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska and feeding internal Trump campaign information to Konstantin Kilimnik, who it identifies for the first time as a Russian intelligence officer. Democrats on the committee wrote in their own addendum that Kilimnik ‘may have been connected’ to the Russian military intelligence unit that carried out the 2016 election hacking of Democratic emails.  Continue reading.

US intelligence says Russia seeking to ‘denigrate’ Biden

The Hill logoThe top U.S. counterintelligence official announced Friday a series of foreign threats facing the 2020 presidential election, warning in particular that Russia is using a range of measures to “primarily denigrate” former Vice President Joe Biden while China prefers that President Trump not win reelection.

William Evanina, the director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, pointed to China, Russia and Iran as the three primary foreign threats to the U.S. presidential race, cautioning that they are seeking to “sway voters’ preferences and perspectives,” sow discord and “undermine the American people’s confidence in our democratic process.”

“Many foreign actors have a preference for who wins the election, which they express through a range of overt and private statements; covert influence efforts are rarer. We are primarily concerned about the ongoing and potential activity by China, Russia, and Iran,” Evanina said in a statement. Continue reading.